Classic Layout

VAST Serving process

Video Ad Standards: VAST, VMAP, VPAID, and Beyond

The VAST, VMAP, and VPAID video ad standards ensure smooth ad delivery, proper tracking, and seamless integration across platforms in digital video advertising, as well as interactive advertising. This article provides a brief overview of what these standards are and how they work together. Section I: Ad Serving Standards 1.  Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) VAST is the standard format …

Read More »

Meet Open Source Video Downloader YT-DLP

I’m updating my book, Video Encoding by the Numbers, which means lots of research into what other encoding professionals are doing. One source of knowledge I appreciate is downloading files from different websites to analyze these files. I used to use YouTube-dl, but it is not as reliable as before, and most GUI-based tools don’t work particularly well. I’m also leery about malware from some of these tools. I learned about yt-dlp this weekend and gave it a …

Read More »

Exploring JPEG AI with Dr. Elena Alshina

I recently had the privilege of chatting with Dr. Elena Alshina about JPEG AI; the video is below. Dr. Alshina is a prominent figure in the field, serving as the Audio Visual Lab Director and Director of the Media Codec and Standardization Lab at Huawei. She also plays a leading role in various international standardization projects, including for JPEG AI. …

Read More »

Streaming Summer Bootcamp Session 2: Producing H.264

Announcing session 2 of Streaming Summer Bootcamp: Learn to Produce H.264 Video. Thu, Jul 11, 2024, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM. The session is to be produced on LinkedIn Live: Click to register. The free webinar will cover: • What H.264 is and its origins • What x264 is and why it’s important • How x264 compares to other H.264 …

Read More »

Simplify Your Workflow: Command-Line Variables in FFmpeg Batch Files

Creating batch files with variables is one of the more efficient ways to run FFmpeg. However, most producers build their batch files with variables inserted directly into the batch file, which means that you have to customize each batch file for different source files or encoding parameters. This is particularly inefficient when you’re encoding multiple files to different encoding parameters; …

Read More »

Navigating Rate Shaping and Zero Rating: Key Takeaways from Qwilt’s Findings

Many streaming publishers focus on the top rung of their encoding ladders and let the rest fall where they may. Recently released survey findings from Qwilt indicate that publishers serving a high percentage of mobile viewers should also focus on the middle rungs, as zero rating and rate-shaping make these the most highly viewed rungs on some mobile networks. The …

Read More »

SMNYC 2024: Streaming Learning Center’s Jan Ozer Talks AI, Codecs, and Patent Pools

At Streaming Media NYC 2024, Tim Siglin interviewed me (Jan Ozer) about how the Streaming Learning Center has expanded into a platform offering courses on streaming-related topics to help technical people in the industry become familiar with terms, technologies, best practices, and tools. He also talks about machine learning, the shift towards Neural Programming Units (NPUs), and the legal and …

Read More »

JPEG AI Is Coming: What You Need to Know

This article provides an overview of JPEG AI, which delivers superior compression efficiency and improved performance for AI tasks like object detection. JPEG AI is an initiative by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) aimed at developing a learning-based image coding standard that uses machine learning techniques to achieve superior compression efficiency, offering a compact representation optimized for both human …

Read More »
New free course on LCEVC Enhancement

Free Course On LCEVC Video-Enhancement

I’m thrilled to introduce my newest course on LCEVC video enhancement! It’s designed to introduce newbies to LCEVC, explain why it’s important, identify the tools available for enhancing and decoding, and teach you how to get the most out of encoding videos with LCEVC enhancement. Here’s what you’ll learn: Lesson 1: LCEVC Fundamentals – Learn the basics and importance of …

Read More »